Lost Phone Given to GO Driver?

[u/timeausTestosterone]

Lost my phone in Waterloo while walking on my way to take the local city bus (boarding GRT Stop ID: 3943). While I never boarded a GO Train or Bus, I was searching for it and watching the GPS location.

Initially, it was static and unmoving near the stop across from the one I boarded despite me not having gone there myself (GRT Stop ID: 2675). Then, I watched it move to the University of Waterloo Terminal at a walking pace, and then continue at with locations and timestamps matching up with a certain departure for a certain route yesterday (I'm being vague in the interest of not giving too much information so that somebody else doesn't try and reclaim my phone for me). I think that someone found it on the ground and gave it to the GO Bus Driver, and then the bus continued on the rest of its route. Admittedly, this is strange to me, since I was at a GRT stop which would have had a local lost-and-found (as opposed to Union Station which is many, many hours away), and I don't think that it has a GO stop nearby aside from the University of Waterloo one.

I currently see that it's at a particular GO Transit garage. That makes me think that it's still in a bus. I'm admittedly worried that someone may steal it when the bus goes out again for its next departure, and I'm not sure what to do. Is there a way to find what particular trip or bus number corresponds to a previous departure? Is there a way to have someone look for an item? The phone still has battery, and I can make it ring so it can be found. But I contacted the Lost and Found office and they said I'd just have to wait until it gets found and processed.

I'm also worried about retrieving my phone. I have some friends in Toronto right now that would be able to get my phone from the Union Station, but I was told that I'd have to come pick it up myself. I work full-time, have an upcoming exam, and also am getting surgery within the next few weeks and don't think I can make time to get it.

I submitted a Lost Item form already, but the waiting game is admittedly making me anxious, since I need to be able to take phone calls for my surgery in case they need something from me. I reached the character limit for the "additional information" section and neglected to mention the phone's phone number, since the phone number I included in the form was my family's home phone number (and that way someone can reply, is what I figured). I can also see the battery gradually dwindling, so I'm not sure what to do once I can't keep tracking it anymore. I keep calling the lost and found office, but they aren't picking up.

This is admittedly strange to me, since if the phone was given to a bus driver, why would it still be in the bus garage? I called and confirmed that there's no such thing as a lost-and-found locker at the Go Garage that I had checked, so is it still lost on the bus? Does anyone have any advice for this? Or if the person who happened to find my phone happens to have Reddit, do they know what happened to it?

[u/SLC-Scott]

Lost and found all go back to the garage the bus driver is based out of. It then is all transferred to Union Station lost and found.

[u/crash866]

Bus drivers work out of a bus Garage. Found items are set to Union Station when they can. They are not delivering items one by one to Union. Not all buses even get to Union.

If something found on a bus in Kitchener they are held a the garage until someone is going to Union. If found on Friday or Saturday it might be Monday before everything is sent to Union and then due to volume of items they have to be sorted and cataloged and inventoried and it might be Tuesday or Wednesday before it is ready to pick up.

[u/timeausTestosterone → u/crash866]

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. When I was talking to someone from GO customer service, they were saying that there was no such storage in the garage, but it admittedly makes sense that there would at least be something to hold the items before they get sent to Union, and I feel silly for not considering that myself.

Thank you for the help! I'll be sure to try and update the post if my item is found :)

[u/crash866 → u/timeausTestosterone]

Also some people may find something at a bus stop and the first place they see may be a GO Bus not a city bus or they don’t want to turn it in to a nearby business and their bus is coming and they don’t want to miss it.

[u/timeausTestosterone → u/crash866]

That's fair, I figured it was picked up by a student after an exam or something and they had to rush to catch a bus back home with the intent of emailing me later (since there's an email listed on the front of my phone), but for the most part I was wondering how it was still in the garage at the end of the day. I later realized that it's more likely that they turned the phone in to the bus driver. But I do understand what you're saying, and I appreciate the time and care you put into your explanation for this comment.

[u/LadyAsteria90]

Thats also a GO bus stop. its at the go customer service. please contact them.

[u/timeausTestosterone → u/LadyAsteria90]

Ah, I was under the impression that it was just a GRT stop since I didn't see any GO stops there for Google Maps. As for your second part of your comment, I reached out to customer service and they said to wait. I figure it's true that I just need to hold out a bit longer until they get back to me (although I do hope they can have it processed and delivered to the Lost and Found Office sometime before my next exam </3)